


A Sleight of Hand

by Rochelle_Templer



Series: Inktober For Writers 2017 [30]
Category: Diagnosis Murder
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 03:56:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12573172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rochelle_Templer/pseuds/Rochelle_Templer
Summary: It wasn't very often, but once in a while, Jesse wished that his life was a little different....





	A Sleight of Hand

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my Inktober for Writers project. The prompt for this fic was "secret".
> 
> This is also sort of sequel to my "A Trick of the Mind" fic. Reading that one is not 100% necessary, but it will give some additional perspective to this fic.

Jesse Travis considered himself an open person. There wasn’t much about himself that he had or that he even wanted to keep secret about himself. The way he saw it, the important stuff about a person would always be visible to the world in one way or another. Everything else was just details that didn’t mean that much by themselves anyway.

Still, if there was one thing that he wasn’t always quick to share with the world, it was that he often wished that he had a different life.

As drastic as that might seem, there wasn’t that much Jesse wished he could change. He still would want to be a doctor, would still want to intern at Community General, and would still wanted his memories of camping up at Lake Watagooie even if he had gotten the worst case of poison oak rash he had ever had. There was actually very little that he would change about his life up to that point, but the one thing he wished he could change was the one thing he knew was impossible.

Because that one thing was that he wished he wasn’t Jesse Travis…but rather Jesse Sloan.

Sure, it was a minor and yet big detail, but it was still always at the back of his mind. It had started up from the very first semester he had spent interning at Community General. Those early days when he had been introduced to Doctor Mark Sloan and had gotten the reminder he truly needed about why he had chosen medical school in the first place. Not because he had any desire to follow in his mother’s footsteps or because of the prestige or income. But because he cared and wanted to have an outlet for that caring.

It didn’t take long before inspiration moved on to genuine friendship between himself and Mark. The two of them had discovered a kinship both as members of the same field and as people whose outlook on life and medicine were on the same wavelength. It seemed a little odd at times, but Jesse felt as if Mark was somehow younger and more eager to learn than many of his fellow interns.

It was around that time that their friendship began to solidify that Jesse got to know Steve and discovered a new tie waiting to form.

Steve was certainly different than Mark, and at first, Jesse wasn’t sure they’d ever mesh as well as he had with the elder Sloan. But much to his surprise, those differences between himself and Steve seemed to make them click better rather than keep them at odds with each other. His friendship with Steve was different than the one he had with Mark, but Jesse treasured both of them just the same.

Still, as he was drawn into the close family circle that Steve and Mark shared, it was hard for Jesse to not feel just a tiny bit envious of the close bonds father and son enjoyed. It was something Jesse knew he could never expect from his own father, even though their relationship had improved in recent years.

And it was something that was keenly felt in moments like the one he had experienced tonight…when someone had thought that he actually was a member of the Sloan family.

Earlier that evening, he, Amanda and Steve had come with Mark to a dinner that preceded an award ceremony honoring doctors who had distinguished themselves who currently practiced in California. None of them had been surprised when Mark was among those being honored…except Mark himself, of course.

Overall, it had been a fun evening. Jesse got the chance to see what his old friends from med school were doing and had an opportunity to speak to some doctors he had admired for years. And there was even some great food on the buffet table. It was one of the best evenings Jesse had spent in a while.

Then came the surreal moment when a pair of doctors came up to him and Mark and had addressed Jesse as if he were Mark’s son.

“Oh no, I’m not….I’m Jesse Travis,” he said with a slightly embarrassed smile. “Doctor Sloan was my mentor in med school and during my internship.”

“Oh? Well if I may say so, you do seem to following in your mentor’s footsteps very well,” one of them said. “I’m sure you have a bright future ahead of you.”

Jesse grinned and thanked him for his kind comments, but soon his mind drifted toward how he had been mistaken for Mark’s son. He wondered if other people made that mistake and he just never knew it. It was an oddly comforting thought even if it was still a mistake. Even though it wasn’t true.

Even though it would always be just a wish. A wish that he would only be able to realize through other people.


End file.
